Popping up a new window for quick notes

Often you’ll find yourself wanting to pop up a new window quickly to write some scratch notes. Helix makes this really fast — either:

• use the :hsplit-new command (or :vsplit-new), which creates a new split with an empty scratch buffer open
• use Space-w n s in the window menu, which does the exact same thing
• use Space-w n v for the vertical version

In the window menu, n opens a “new” submenu of its own, and s or v inside it picks the direction of the split.

The statusline calls the result [scratch]: a buffer with no file behind it. Write it out with :w somefile if the notes turn out to be worth keeping.

Work through the checklist and give them a go. If you’re anything like me, you’ll find yourself doing this super often!